Whip Hoyer and Senate Democrats: GOP Filibuster Of Short-Term FAA Extension Will Cost Thousands Of Jobs, At Least $1 Billion Unless It Is Ended Now

i'm the democratic whip. i'm speaking on behalf of leader pelosi and myself. as leader reid has pointed out today, almost 4000 federal employees, and some 70,000 workers our contractors around this country are being held captive. they are out on the street because republicans have refused to work with us to find common ground. the faa shut down will jeopardize $11 billion in construction projects. it will cost more than $200 million per week. it has already cost us $360 million. this is from the party that is worried about fiscal responsibility. thousands of people of critical aviation engineers, safety analysts, and key personnel. we owe it to these workers to come together and reach a compromise. we owe it to every american taxpayer to come together and reach a compromise. we need to get this done, and we should get it done today. unfortunately republicans continue to practice the politics of competition and hostagetaking. and it is severely damaging our economy and the livelihoods of people across our nation. as leader reid pointed out, we have been for months now holding 315 million americans in the entire country hostage, to the threats of taking us over the president's into default. because of the work of the white house, leader reid and leader pelosi, and others, we avoided that. at the last minute. however, 75,000 people are now over the precipice and worrying about whether the people in washington on the republican side of the aisle are going to responsibly say enough. these are people who are responsible for modernizing our airports, building the runways and healthy our infrastructures keep pace with the rest of the world. while our competitors continue to invest in infrastructure and roads, america is losing ground. this is why. every day, because of republican hostagetaking. for the sake of more than 75,000 americans, waiting to work, willing to work, and wanted to work, and we have asked them to work. for the sake of economic competitiveness, it's time for republicans to put our country first, and these workers, first, before themselves, before the heady politics they are pursuing. and work with those to forge a long-term compromise instep timber, but there's a bill in the house of representatives introduced by congressman that could be passed within hours, that speaker boehner would simply agree to unanimous consent agreement, and leader reid, if mr. mcconnell would agree to unanimous consent agreement, could pass this within hours. or pass the bill that is in the senate. [inaudible] >> we now hear that the senate can pass it within minutes. [laughter] i will quickly go back to the house of representatives and report that, no matter how much my credibility will suffer. [laughter] we need to act on this issue now. 75,000 americans demanded it our country demands it, and it's very responsible to hold hostage these people and our country and the safety of our airways, pending some petty political gain that might be reached. i now yield to a distinguished former colleague of mine, not a colleague of mine but a good friend of mine, the chairman of the congress committee, senator jay rockefeller. >> ladies and gentlemen, it's very easy to solve this. it's embarrassing easily, shamefully easy. all we have to do is to have the house and us or we send it in and accept it. a clean bill of extension. ...